MADRID (Spain): Barcelona midfielder Frenkie De Jong has injured a calf muscle and could be out of action for several weeks, according to the club and media reports.
De Jong, 23, sat out Barca’s goalless draw with Sevilla on Friday and the club said in a statement on Sunday that “the clinical follow-up… has uncovered an injury in the soleus of his right leg.”
The club did not say how long De Jong would be out of action but media reports said it could be several weeks.
The Dutch international, who was signed after starring in Ajax’s charge to the Champions League semi-finals last season, has made 27 league appearances in a solid first campaign in Spain’s coronavirus-interrupted season.
It was July 5 last year and De Jong was being unveiled after a 75 million-euro ($85m) move from Ajax. On his first day, the Dutchman arrived at his new flat to find a restaurant booked for him and his girlfriend by Sergio Busquets, the player many assumed De Jong was bought to replace.
Later, he met Lionel Messi, whose name he had printed on the back of a Barca shirt he owned as a boy.
“Maybe it makes him feel old but he was already the best player when he was very young so I think it’s more because of that,” De Jong, who at 23 is almost 10 years younger than Messi, told AFP.
